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Letter to the Editor, Stamford’ Mercury
Quentin Davis Affair: A perspective of a Liberal Democrat
By Dr Sam (Ismail) Jalili, Stamford
The outcry at the defection of Quentin Davis to Labour is puzzling. The boundaries between the two parties are barely discernable. The past 25 years have witnessed increasing limitations of freedom and authoritarianism, the rise of unelected quangos, hawkish foreign policies and wars.
Our health services, starved of resources by Mrs Thatcher, has under Labour become a hyper-inflated bureaucratic balloon, ready to burst. This is in addition to the decline in public services and rapidly widening gap between the poor and the very wealthy. Our children’s debts are climbing and future generations leave universities having to pay heavily for an education enjoyed for free by today’s politicians. Britons are increasingly disillusioned and despairing of our democratic system.
I do agree with Quentin Davis that David Cameron’s Conservative Party is PR centred whilst its policies are empty of substance; conversely, is their any substance in Labour’s policies? One important fact highlighted by Quentin Davis is that both parties are more interested in foreign presidents receiving party leaders than in listening to their own people.
However, let us give Quentin Davis a chance to prove the sentiment behind his defection. Let him to call on Gordon Brown to give us back the NHS; our hospitals are under threat, staff and services slashed. Let him stop the waste; millions have been spent on botched reforms which haven’t helped people. Let him give power to local communities and let local people have their say and not ministers; a policy we Liberal Democrats have always preached. Let him start listening to the disenchanted, silent majority.
Let him deliver the kind of services our country needs in the 21st century and remind him that Britain is the fourth largest economy in the world; cuts have been made because politicians opt to, not because we don’t have the resources. These are what Liberal Democrats and the British people strongly believe in. Let us see Britain once again leading in education and research, stronger industry and economy and a shining model of transparent democracy.
Councillor Dr Sam Jalili
Vice-Chair Grantham & Stamford Liberal Democrats
2 July 2007 |